Virginia Capers
*Virginia Capers was born on this date in 1925. She was a Black actress and singer.
From Sumter, South Carolina, Eliza Virginia Capers attended Howard University in Washington, D. C., and studied voice at Juilliard in Manhattan. She was introduced to band leader Abe Lyman, who hired her for his radio program and on-the-road tours. In the late 1950s, she played in the Broadway productions of "Jamaica" and "Saratoga." Capers topped her stage career with a Tony Award for her role as the matriarch Lena Younger in the 1974 musical "Raisin," a version of "A Raisin in the Sun." In 1979, she performed in the straight dramatic version of the Lorraine Hansberry play.
As a heavyset Black woman, she worked thoroughly to fight off typical stereotypes in the movie business. On occasion, Capers played judges, nurses, and other professional characters. Still, she sometimes found herself in the same category as Theresa Merritt, Mabel King, and others before a live audience in the dominant mother or hired help category. Her stage recognition moved into TV, where she often appeared in the 1960s in the dramas "Daniel Boone," "Mannix," "Knot's Landing," "ER" and comedies "Evening Shade," "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," "And the Hughleys."
Her best-known roles in films were as Mama Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues (1972) and Nurse Sparrow in Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986). With plenty of talent, musical actress Capers made music her focus and passion for most of her career. Virginia Capers died of pneumonia on May 6, 2004, at age 78.
